St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-09-25
Results Of Several Analyses
of Water Taken From St.
Paul Wells.
They Show the Presence OF
Matter That Spreads the
Seeds of Disease.
What the Health Commission
ers and Other Officials
Say on the Point.
Some Facts Which it VIII Not
Harm the Public to
Know.

Truth lies in well. So do the germs
of typhoid fever, according to st. Paul
health authorities.
When the mention of well water was
made to Health Commissioner Jones
yesterday afternoon he betrayed no sur
prise, and manifested only common
interest as if the subject were an every
day matter. He didn't say word, but
he produced several test tubes ofvariOus
sizes, each of which was partly filled
with water Then he remarked. "l'll
show you how to test for chlorides. If
there is any chloride the water will turn
milky color"
He put some well water from an ordi-
nary bottle into the longest test tube.
He poured little nitric acid into it.
Then he put little nitrate of silver
into the aciduated mixture. AS result
the milky color was soon apparent
The crusader against well water then
substituted in place of the milky Hquld
some city water, which he put to the
same test. The result was altogether
different. for the water was just as clear
after the test as before.
NeSSler'S test for ammonia was next
applied. A few drops of Sulphuric acid
caused brownish color i'll the ounce
tube, and yellow-brown precipitate
was noticed. This showed that the
water contained ammoniacal salts.
The test used for nitrates was Hors-
ley's. First, twenty drops of pure sui
phuric acid was put into another tube.
Ten drops of water to be examined were
acid was carefully let fall into the
LIQUID. In one test pink zone APP
peared; in the other it was delicate
blue. which changed into dark anne
thyst. and finally into brown-an I'M
deniable proof of the presence of
nitrateS.
BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT
and simplest test was reserved until the
last-the test for organic matter by the
agent of permanganate of potash. The
tall test tube was nearly filed with well
water. Another tube received a guam
tity of city water. The formula for the
test says distilled water should be used
in the latter, but DR.. Jones says city
water is pure enough. As much solu-
ton of permanganate-p potash as would
impart distinct pink tinge was added
to the water in the long tube, and
similar quantity to the other, containing
the city water. The two tubes were
then placed side by side upon white
sheet of paper, and the difference was
easy to be seen. The city water re-
tanned the pink tint clear, but dis
coloration set in very rapidly in the well
water, the pink changing to dull
brick red, and then to a brown. This
proved the main thing-that the we'll
water contained quantity of oXidiZable
organic matter.
Now let's see what the results of sew
eral ANALYSES made by Prof. George
Wertbrecht at the High school labora-
tory. Unfortunately Prof. Wertbrecht
only tested for chlorides and ammonia,
the chlorides being in the proportion of
grains per gallon and the ammonia of
parts per million, the ammonia being
divided into free and albuminoid. The
water was obviously tested to satisfy
the board of education as the fitness of
school well water to drink.
A sample of water from West st.
Paul showed chlorine, 1.063: free am
monia, OPS: albuminoid, .0245. and this
water was considered not injurious. 1t
was taken at depth of sixty feet and
was clear and bright. The next sample
is from University avenue. The test
showed it to be: Chlorides, 1.79; free
ammonia, .00425; albuminoid. .0O23O.
Prof. Wertbrecht said: ''This water is,
while it is contaminated, in my
III III pun
poses" Then comes another sample
from West st. Paul, taken from a well
FoRTY-Two FEET DEEP,
around which were four privy vaults
within a radius of 125 feet. The water
was opalescent. 1t did not become clear
even after long standing. The chlorine
amounted to LOSS, the free ammonia
Jos, albuminoid .1125. 1.-THE ammonia
products were large" said the local
chemist, with small amount of
chloride. The probability is that the
ammonia has vegetable origin"
Lastly comes specimen from Agate
street from we'll sixty feet deep. where
the soil was sandy and around which
were four privieS and two barns, all less
than fifty feet from the well. The
reader will notice the unusually large
amount of chlorides. Following is the
analyses: Chlorides 1855, ammonia
los, albuminoid .137. Said the professor
in his note: 1.-The amount of chloride
and of ammonia show that the water is
contaminated with organic matter."One
would naturally think it was.
DR.. Jones has several analyses by DR..
Charles Smart, of the United States
army, member of the national board
of health, which DR.. Smart took when
he was visiting this city. All tend, to
show in detail that well water, as a gen
eral thing. is impure and productive of
disease.
When DR.. Jones was asked to give a
general opinion of water in wells which
are in sickening proximity to cess pools,
which they help to drain wells which
too frequently are the catch basins of
the filth of back slop yards-he simply
looked, but the expression of his face
impressed his inquisitor with the fact
that the health officer had grown tired
to the ordinary mind that water from
such wells was unfit for drinking or any
other purposes, and did not require talk
to convince anybody that such was the
case. As he subsequently remarked:
ssWhy don't you go and ask some OF the
physicians of the city, and see what
they say. The people think | am a
crank on the subject" Well. the ply
sicians of the city are almost unanimous
in their unqualified
CONDEMNATION OF WELL WATER.
Why is we'll water so bad?
The substance of a large number of
views expressed by different physicians
of the highest standing, is this:
Wells in cities are too close to cesspools.
They are catchbasins for all kinds of disease
producing putrescent animal matter, and
fhrice rotten vegetable matter. Here and
there the clay formation, or particular quail
ity of soil to be met with in many parts of
the city, renders the water impure. Standing
water, as it is well known. has always ten
dency to stagnate. The idea of some, based
upon the well understood notion that clear
running water is always pure. that their wells
are supposedly springs, is offset by the fact
that when the water is contaminated with
the drainage from privies, it contains the I'M
failing cause of typhoid fever, scarlet fever
and diphtheria. AS to the running water
idea, it is all well enough, but would
any sensible person take water from
the Mississippi river after the sewage
Of t,rro lilo Panl and M1nnaa rnliS